UPDATE: One of Nashua’s largest historic mansions, the Frank E. Anderson estate — last used as a school and a home for retired nuns — was sold Wednesday.

The Nashua Telegraph reports an auction scheduled for Thursday was canceled after news of the sale broke.

Nostalgia and neighborly curiosity drew a crowd of 200 to walk past the lion statues and look inside this 26 thousand square foot brick mansion in Nashua’s north end at a house tour last week.

Every corner leads to a signature from the home’s turn of the 20th century design: detailed millwork, marbled fireplaces and carved ceilings.

Upstairs on the third floor is a time capsule from the 1960s: a pink-glazed ballroom with cushioned window seats.

Melanie Kirkland of Nashua remembers:

My mother used to attend dances up here when she attended the Mount.

The 34-room estate was once a school called Mount St. Mary’s and up until a few years ago, a residence for retired nuns.

The Sisters of Mercy put the house on the market for 2.3 million fourteen months ago.

But they had no offers.

Justin Manning heads the auction house.

He says it’s common for religious groups to divest properties of this size when they’re left vacant.

If it’s being utilized, then it can come under the non-profit umbrella. If it’s not, it becomes fully taxable, which then becomes a bigger line-item liability. So we do see it. And most of them are fairly old. And that’s why the motivation to sell. To maintain the older properties, there’s a leak you don’t expect. You have to upgrade the old systems.